Our beloved leader, Jim, sent this book to me after I shared with him a link to a news article, which announced a new product that would allow you to have Stan Lee read stuff to you via a digitally cloned voice. Having been raised on my brother's copy of Stan's The Origin of Marvel Comics from 1974 (now battered but long in my possession after he abandoned comics), and the six-issue reprint collections by Pocket Books, as well as Stan's narration for the early 80's cartoons of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and The Incredible Hulk, I've long been a fan of his bombastic writing style. Plus, there were all those great stories from the early Marvel Age...
Luke 8:17
For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.
Dang.
This is how our actual exchange began:
Next thing I know, Jim forwards me a notification that the book is on its way. "Nuff Said", indeed.
Having been lovingly misled that my (ex) step-father, Kenny, was my real Daddy until I was four years old, a truth revealed to me after a fight with my step-sister "Bumsie" on a rocking horse that ended with my mother showing me two different wedding albums in our little kitchen (one from 1963 and the other from 1971), my whole world was upended and I was changed forever, seeking to be an honest person (at times brutally) - hating all lies and distortions. This strong conviction continued to cement over the years after I was saved and became a born-again Christian back in 1976.
Proverbs 12:22
The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful.
Proverbs 6:16-19
There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
John 8:44
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Let's just say the book's title is accurate! Unfortunately.
Now, I've been hearing/reading various things people have said about what really happened back in the day, so it wasn't a complete shock to me, but this was the first time I was confronted with a perponderance of evidence consisting of eyewitness quotes and historical "accounting" along with rational deductions. The author, Chaz Gower, makes a compelling case for sure, and I appreciate the intent and the effort. I was definitely enthralled by it, suspending all other comic reading until I finished (yesterday).
However, there are some problems with it. For one, the layout is sized incorrectly. The text on the page leaves way too much white space for the top and bottom margins (see below), making the font size for the footnotes and page numbers incredibly small. And boy, are there a lot of footnotes.
This appears to be a self-published Amazon-only work with a legit ISBN # but no copyright page. Anyway, the book size should either have been sized smaller to fit the text, or the text should have been resized (increased) to fit the book.
There are numerous quotes, repeated for emphasis when making certain points, which became tedious after I'd read some of them at least a half a dozen times (or so). I don't really know what the solution would be to improve it. Maybe you could highlight the new portions of quotes when they appear later, so you can quickly distinguish what has already been said/used. Anyway, I think some further editing to remove redundancies would make it a better and more effective read.
The primary purpose is to prove that it was Kirby and Ditko, etc., who were the master storytellers; Lee just supplied the dialogue, not the real ideas. Stan's also shown to have stolen credit and pay from these and other creators. The evidence is pretty damning against Lee.
But I feel that the author's personal bias/opinions are sometimes too strong, in that they rarely acknowledge any meaningful contribution by Lee. Sure, there were (many) times where Lee's handling of the dialogue messed up the actual story, but it was that same dialogue that we all loved so much from those stories (or at least I still do). Just look at Kirby's mid/late-70s Marvel work, which I also love, but they really would have read better if someone had enhanced those captions. If only they could have done so without stabbing Jack in the back or stealing his pay - a true collaboration. I hate that things were done badly to creators, and learning that the Marvel method was more of a way to keep the artist from getting a portion of the writer's pay (and credit). However, writing dialogue is still writing!
I was most shocked to read about the portrayal of Roy Thomas as a company man. The whole comic book industry is built on working with other people's creations. Does that diminish the writing? Is Roy not a writer, because he was using a character he didn't create (Conan)? Nonsense. Anyway, I think credit should certainly be given appropriately; too bad people can't be properly compensated for their contributions at this late stage. [I also found it troubling the inferences against John Morrows of TwoMorrows, who seems to be a good steward of Jack's legacy over the years.]
I also didn't appreciate how much my starting era of comics (1977 and up) is seen as subpar compared to the Silver Age. Just looking at sales numbers doesn't tell the full story (you also have to consider other economic factors), plus it doesn't speak to the enjoyment one had reading those stories. It may have been built on a house of lies, and the ideas may have been stalled, but there were a ton of comic book creators generating some really entertaining books.
I did appreciate the inclusion of an interview where someone had positive interactions with Lee, who had given their dad free comics for them to enjoy.
I probably could find more things to say, but it's getting late, and I have other things I want to do today. It's a good read, but a slightly flawed one. I only hope I forget about some of the worst details the next time I read one of those classic stories. You've got to suspend your disbelief to read comics; I just never knew that carried over to some of the creators as well.
Thanks for sending it to me, Jim.
No comments:
Post a Comment